“This is a march that will be nearly impossible to stop. This is the permanent destruction of the right to privacy. This is the exaltation of safety over liberty, and it will lead to neither. This is the undoing of limited government, right before our eyes.”
“If ‘#Resistance’ means anything, at a minimum it should entail a refusal to trust a dangerous authoritarian to wield vast power with little checks or oversight.”
“Parallel construction is when law enforcement originally obtains evidence through a secret surveillance program, then tries to seek it out again, via normal procedure. In essence, law enforcement creates a parallel, alternative story for how it found information. That way, it can hide surveillance techniques from public scrutiny and would-be criminals. A new report released by Human Rights Watch Tuesday, based in part on 95 relevant cases, indicates that law enforcement is using parallel construction regularly.”
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/stingray-secret-surveillance-programs/
“The Yoder family, like others of their sect, shun the use of electricity, especially when it is from the grid. For years, the Yoders have been fighting the sewer connection order because it requires them to install an electric grinder pump to shunt waste from their home into the Sugar Grove Area Sewer Authority’s system in Warren County. Rejected was the family’s argument that they should simply be allowed to keep using their outdoor privy, which lacks electricity and running water.”
Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/01/old_order_amish_family_must_co.html
“Their guidance claims the authority to search a traveler’s electronic devices ‘with or without suspicion.’ The guidance now claims passengers are ‘obligated’ to turn over their devices as well as passcodes for examination. If they fail to do so, agents can seize the device. That is all considered a ‘basic search.’ Agents must have suspicion in order to conduct an ‘advanced search.’ This includes copying information from devices, or analyzing them with other equipment. Finally, CBP agents can not ‘intentionally’ search information stored on the cloud, versus on the device’s hard drive.”
“Federal officers would look to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented people while sending a message that immigration policy will be enforced in the sanctuary state, according to a source familiar with the operation. Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, declined to comment Tuesday on plans for the operation. The campaign, centered in the Bay Area, could happen within weeks, and is expected to become the biggest enforcement action of its kind under President Trump, said the source, who requested anonymity because the plans have not been made public.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Feds-planning-massive-Northern-California-12502689.php
“The DEA’s Special Operations Division is one of several tools the government uses to hide the origins of criminal investigations nationwide, in potential violation of constitutional protections. In a report released today, ‘Dark Side: Secret Origins of Evidence in U.S. Criminal Cases,’ Human Rights Watch documents the use of parallel construction by federal and local police agencies, finding the practice is used in the United States ‘frequently and possibly even daily.'”
Read more: https://theintercept.com/2018/01/09/dark-side-fbi-dea-illegal-searches-secret-evidence/
“State corrections officials say the recordings generally were not listened to or provided to law enforcement, though in one case, that did happen. And defense lawyers suspect the problem may be prevalent.”
“If a citizen speaks at a public meeting and says something a politician doesn’t like, can the citizen be arrested, cuffed, and carted off to the hoosegow? Suppose that, during this fraught encounter, the citizen violates some law—even by accident, even one no one has ever heard of, even one dug up after the fact—does that make her arrest constitutional? Deyshia Hargrave, meet Fane Lozman. You need to follow his case.”
“Today’s vote means reforms to provide stronger Fourth Amendment protections from unwarranted searches will not happen and a filibuster can’t actually stop the scheduled vote. The USA RIGHTS Act is essentially dead, unless the full vote fails. (Spoiler: Since the renewal bill survived a cloture vote, it won’t fail.)”
Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/16/senate-votes-to-shut-down-rand-paul-fili